text:
One thing that Oracle and
UPS have in common is that they both deal with wrapped packages. Why bother
with wrapping packages? One obvious reason is to hide the contents from prying
eyes. You can wrap a real package with nondescript wrapping paper or use
transparent cellophane. This idea of a choice between hiding and exposing
packages (and other objects) in Oracle serves the same purpose as wrapping your
UPS package – you do not want prying eyes to see what's in your Oracle package.
The PL/SQL Wrap Utility
Appendix C of the Oracle 9.2
PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference covers the wrap utility. With many
applications, it is common to see directories full of source code. Businesses
can protect their intellectual property by taking proactive measures to protect
and safeguard copyrighted material. If a company suspects copyright
infringement is occurring, it is up to the company to seek legal remedies. This
approach to protecting intellectual property (source code) is similar to
closing the barn door after the cows have left. Perhaps the sheer number of
files and lines of code serves as a deterrent to this type of theft.
If you or your company has
developed algorithms that give your product a competitive edge in the
marketplace, it makes sense that you would want to protect that code. All that
needs to be exposed is the input. The internals of what happens to that input
or how the output is produced can be likened to the black box approach in
testing. With Oracle's wrap utility, you can turn the inner workings of your
code into an impenetrable black box, for the most part, to protect your
The "for the most part"
caveat serves to alert you that wrap has some limitations. The reference guide,
in part, states, "String literals, number literals and names of variables,
tables and columns remain in plain text within the wrapped file. Wrapping a
procedure helps to hide the algorithm and prevent reverse-engineering, but it
is not a way to hide passwords or table names that you want to be secret."
Oracle allows you to wrap
the code inside the following statements:
CREATE [OR REPLACE] FUNCTION function_name
CREATE [OR REPLACE] PROCEDURE procedure_name
CREATE [OR REPLACE] PACKAGE package_name
CREATE [OR REPLACE] PACKAGE BODY package_name
CREATE [OR REPLACE] TYPE type_name … OBJECT
CREATE [OR REPLACE] TYPE BODY type_name
A common practice is to
leave specifications unwrapped and to wrap the implementation of procedures and
functions within the package body.
Running the Wrap Utility
Wrapping a package is
amazingly simple, although there is one pitfall to avoid. Among the 500 plus
files in the ORACLE_HOME/bin directory you will see wrap or WRAP depending on
your operating system (a lot of the more common files and directories on
Windows are upper-cased for ease of readability and identification).
Using wrap is as simple as
c:ora9ibin wrap iname=input_file_name
You can specify an output
file as a second argument by using this format:
c:ora9ibin wrap iname=input_file_name oname=output_file_name
Once wrapped, a package
cannot be unwrapped. With that in mind, and just like what you would do with a
real package, do not wrap the package until it is time to ship it. This implies
keeping a source code repository of the original code. If a customer or user
reports a bug against a wrapped package, there is no unwrapping it at the
customer's site. You are going to have to ship another wrapped package with the
fix in it. You will be making the bug fix or enhancement with the repository
file and wrapping the new file.
An Example of Using Wrap
In a previous article, I
used the DBMS_RANDOM package. A slightly modified bit of code from that
produces the following:
SQL> CREATE or REPLACE PROCEDURE wrap_it (seed_in NUMBER)
3 v_rand INTEGER;
5 DBMS_RANDOM.INITIALIZE (seed_in);
6 FOR i IN 1..5 LOOP
7 v_rand := mod(abs(DBMS_RANDOM.RANDOM),45);
8 dbms_output.put_line(i||': '||v_rand);
11 /Procedure created.
SQL> exec wrap_it(123456);
1: 37
2: 36
3: 18
4: 8
5: 32PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
I can take the code for the
wrap_it procedure and, well, wrap it. The code for the procedure is in a file
named wrap_example.sql.
C:ora9i>wrap iname=c:ora9iadminwrap_example.sqlPL/SQL Wrapper: Release 10.1.0.2.0- Production on Thu Jul 15 22:11:18 2004
Copyright (c) 1993, 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Processing c:ora9iadminwrap_example.sql to wrap_example.plb
Note how Oracle changed the
file extension to "plb." Can we see the contents of the
wrap_example.plb file? Sure, but will it be completely readable? Let's find
Opening wrap_example.plb in
my general-purpose text editor (TextPad, www.textpad.com,
it's free, but worth paying for a license), we see the following lines of text:
CREATE or REPLACE PROCEDURE wrap_it wrapped
e0 f7
That looks fairly
undecipherable to me. One thing to note is the location of the output file.
Using the example above, the new wrap_example.plb file was created in the
c:ora9i (my ORACLE_HOME) directory.
Now we know the procedure works and that the file or script can be wrapped.
I will drop the procedure and re-create it using the plb file. If all goes
well, I should be able to execute the procedure as before.
SQL> drop procedure wrap_it;Procedure dropped.
SQL> @c:ora9iwrap_example.plb
Procedure created.
SQL> exec wrap_it(123456);
1: 37
2: 36
3: 18
4: 8
5: 32PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
In Closing
The wrap utility is very
easy to use, so if you have code you would like to protect, wrap it up. If the
uncompiled or unwrapped version passes testing, so will the wrapped version
because Oracle guarantees portability of the code.
What are some situations
where you would want to wrap your code? Schema migration or alteration
immediately comes to mind. Often times when there is a database migration
(going to a newer version), you will find application developers or software
manufacturers releasing a newer version of their product. The point release or
major release version probably incorporates schema changes. Running wrapped
update scripts helps protect your work. Keep in mind, though, that if a
malicious user is dedicated enough, pretty much any schema can be reverse
engineered, but why make it easy for him? Wrap it up and protect your work. And
that's a wrap.


text:
Human Impacts in the Southeast Pacific Region
Mining and fishing are very important activities to the people who live in Chile and Peru. Do you think these activities could be connected to the climate in this area? Scientists in the VOCALS field experiment are going to learn more about how people impact their environment in the Southeast Pacific region.
Mining is probably the most important activity in Chile and Peru. There are lots of different minerals in this region. Copper is the most important. In fact, this area is one of the biggest copper producing areas in the world. The aerosols that are released as part of the copper smelting process are of interest to VOCALS scientists. This is because aerosols are known to impact the formation of clouds. Learning more about how aerosols impact cloud formation is an important part of VOCALS science.
Fishing is also very important in this area. Fishing and processing fish are very important, especially in larger port cities such as Iquique and Arica. VOCALS scientists are interested in the impact of changing climates on fishing in the Southeast Pacific Ocean.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Why Doctors Still Use Pen and Paper
Health care reformer David Blumenthal explains why the medical system can't move into the digital age.
The health-care system is one of the most technology-dependent parts of the American economy, and one of the most primitive. Every patient knows, and dreads, the first stage of any doctor visit: sitting down with a clipboard and filling out forms by hand.
David Blumenthal, a physician and former Harvard Medical School professor, was from 2009 to 2011 the national coordinator for health information technology, in charge of modernizing the nation's medical-records systems. He now directs The Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that conducts health-policy research. Here, he talks about why progress has been so slow, and when and how that might change.
James Fallows: From the lay public's point of view, medical records seem incredibly backward. Is the situation any better than it looks?
David Blumenthal: It's on the way to getting better. But we still have a long way to go. The reason why the medical profession has been so slow to adopt technology at the point of contact with patients is that there is an asymmetry of benefits.
From the patient's perspective, this is a no-brainer. The benefits are substantial. But from the provider's perspective, there are substantial costs in setting up and using the systems. Until now, providers haven't recovered those costs, either in payment or in increased satisfaction, or in any other way. Ultimately, there are of course benefits to the professional as well. It's beyond question that you become a better physician, a better nurse, a better manager when you have the digital data at your fingertips. But the costs are considerable, and they have fallen on people who have no economic incentive to make the transition. The benefits of a more efficient practice largely accrue to people paying the bills. The way economists would describe this is that the medical marketplace is broken.
JF: This is a subset of the general brokenness of the medical marketplace, right?
DB: Yes. There are many problems that come from the brokenness of the health-care market. To put it another way, if the medical market functioned like the car industry or the computer industry or the service industry, with true competition based on quality and price, providers would have adopted electronic records long ago. I'm not advocating pure market competition in health care. But there are many ways in which the medical marketplace should work better, and this is one of them.
JF: What's the best thought-experiment example of medical-marketplace incentives working the right way? The VA?
DB: When the benefits of using better technology are "internalized," as the economists would say, there has been much more rapid, complete, and effective adoption of electronic medical records. So, the VA: the benefits are internalized, because the VA has to live within a budget. In private health-care organizations like Kaiser or the Geisinger plan in Pennsylvania, or the Group Health Cooperative in Puget Sound, electronic medical records were adopted decades ago, and are widely used and highly effective. You don't need a thought experiment to find living, breathing examples of what happens when the incentives work right.
JF: What's the connection between the electronic-records effort you directed and the larger Obamacare strategy?
DB: This may be a Beltway detail, but the law that I implemented was not in the Affordable Care Act. It was actually part of the earlier and much maligned stimulus bill. The hope was that promoting medical records would lay the groundwork for a more efficient health-care system, and thereby make universal coverage more affordable to the country—
JF: And—
DB: And you're about to ask whether it did.
JF: Yes.
DB: It would have. And it will. But it needs time to realize its potential.
I think the parallel is the time it took from when computerization became prevalent in other industries to the time when worker productivity improved. We are only three years into the process of making digital information widely available in health care. And health care is an extraordinarily complex, knowledge-intensive industry. If you want a thought experiment, you could ask yourself how good modern medicine is when physicians and nurses know nothing at all about the patient. So information is absolutely the critical resource in health care, more important than steel in making cars. When you change the way information is used and collected in medicine, you change everything about the way work is done. It is an enormously disruptive process within the health-care system. It takes time to accommodate. In places like Kaiser and Geisinger, electronic medical records are already making a big impact. But that is mostly because those organizations started using them a long time ago.
JF: What about when you switch from too little technology in the patient experience to too much? When the doctor is staring at a laptop rather than looking at you?
DB: This is a transition issue. Most physicians' offices, and I've been in a lot of them, are set up so that when the physician looks at the screen, he or she can't look at the patient. Often they have their back to the patient. That is because no one has given a lot of thought to how to maximize the ergonomic quality of inserting this technology into the office.
That will come. I also think that voice-recognition technology is going to be an enormous relief both to the physician and to the patient, because the physician will be able to talk to a machine rather than typing into it. Those technologies are improving—as you can tell from your smartphone—and as they do, a lot of this ergonomic problem will go away.
JF: In the broadest sense, what difference will better information technology make in our lives and health?
DB: Fundamentally, every medical record is a tool for collecting information: the information a physician collects when looking at you in a physical examination; the results of lab tests. The constant automatic information collection is going to increase, whether it's your phone monitoring your heart rate or your scale sending information about your weight to your health provider, or the contact lenses Google wants to market that measure blood glucose levels.
They all are sources of information about your health and well-being. And the challenge we face collectively, inside the health-care establishment and outside it, is how to take all this information, separate what's useful from what's not, and then apply it to improve the decisions of patients and care providers.
This is a generic problem in society. We have lots of information, and we don't always know what to do with it. Your doctor, your nurse, is not prepared to process the information they already have. It's already overwhelming. And adding more in will just make it even more anxiety-provoking and overwhelming. That is, in a sense, the big data challenge facing health care in the future.
This will move us into a field that is taking shape right now, that of analytics. It will help us take these data and turn them into diagnostic information—into recommendations a physician can give a patient or that patients can get directly, online.
That's where the future lies, and of course people want the benefit of it right now. Before, there was no market to make this sort of analytic product. Now that we have a growing electronic infrastructure for health information, there is a surge of traditional capitalist interest in turning that information into valuable knowledge, and selling it back to patients and doctors. That will happen. But it could never have happened until we got the data into digital form.
(Image via 18percentgrey/Shutterstock.com)


text:
Why should a person who is not Catholic consider entering into the Church? Father Francis Peffley gives five compelling reasons, followed by a simple outline of the steps one would take to begin the process of becoming Catholic. Fr. Peffley is active with parish young adult ministry, retreat work, Catholic apologetics, and evangelization. His hobbies include golf, scuba diving, bowling, and juggli... [More]
The Holy Shroud of Turin was called the greatest relic in Christendom by Pope John Paul II. In fact, the Shroud is the most studied scientific object in the entire world. Fr. Peffley presents new and detailed scientific and medical evidence for the authenticity of the Holy Shroud. This presentation brings greater clarity as to the depth of the agony of our Lord's sorrowful Passion, which he volu... [More]
El Santo Papa Juan Pablo II llamó a la Sábana Santa de Turín la reliquia más grande de la cristiandad. De hecho, la Sábana Santa es el objeto científico más estudiado en todo el mundo. En esta charla, el P. Peffley nos presenta evidencia científica, médica y detallada de la autenticidad de la Sábana Santa. También detalla con mayor claridad la profundidad de la dolorosa agonía de la Pa... [More]


text:
For your iPhone 5C cracked screen repair we only utilize the highest quality parts. In other words, every part must meet our standards. If we wouldn't use it on our own device we will not use it with yours.
We keep a wide variety of iPhone and iPad parts in stock. Therefore, most repairs can be completed same day in as little as one hour! Click "Book Now" above to schedule an appointment for your iPhone 5C screen repair.
We stand behind our replacement parts in addition to our workmanship on our iPhone 5C cracked screen repair. Which is why we offer a limited lifetime warranty.
We offer discounts for multiple repairs. Getting a screen repair and realize your battery doesn't perform like you remember? Get up to 40% a battery repair on select devices.
Let's talk about your iPhone 5C cracked screen repair. This is the most common type of repair that is needed from our customers. A shattered glass can do a number of different things when the damage occurs. The first, and most common is simply when the glass becomes shattered and the phone remains working just fine. In some instances you may still be able to see your screen but the touch function or digitizer layer has stopped working altogether. Lastly, in rare cases your display (LCD/OLED) will show lines, spots or will be completely black. Get the BEST screen replacement service in the Twin Cities for your iPhone 5C. No matter your issue fear not, we have seen it and we can help!
Brand New Again is an iPhone 5C screen repair specialist business located in Edina, Minnesota. We serve the surrounding Twin Cities area. These cities include Minneapolis, St Paul, Bloomington, Richfield, Saint Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie and more.


text:
The 2017 family movie "A Dog's Purpose" was marred by accusations of animal abuse after a video of a frightened dog that appeared to be forced into rushing water during the making of the film was posted by TMZ.
The footage quickly went viral but a third-party investigation discounted the allegations. On Thursday, those involved in the film reflected on the controversy at the premiere of the film's sequel, "A Dog's Journey."
American Humane has said its investigation showed no dogs were harmed but acknowledged the dog was in distress and production staff should have realized that earlier.
Dennis Quaid, the star of both movies, said: "I think we were really vindicated in that."
READ MORE: Big brother, big winner: Kelowna local wins reality TV show
PETA maintained that an animal was terrorized during the movie in a statement to The Associated Press on Friday.
Michael Cidoni Lennox, The Associated Press


text:
When Do Fish Sleep?
- Description
- Additional information
Ponder, if you will …
Why are tennis balls fuzzy?
How come birds don't tip over when they sleep on telephone wires?
What makes yawning contagious?
Why, oh why, do roosters have to crow so early in the morning?
Pop-culture guru David Feldman demystifies these topics and so much more in When Do Fish Sleep? — the unchallenged source of answers to civilization's most baffling questions. Part of the Imponderables® series and charmingly illustrated by Kassie Schwan, When Do Fish Sleep? arms readers with the knowledge about everyday life that encyclopedias, dictionaries, and almanacs just don't have. And think about it, where else are you going to get to the bottom of why Mickey Mouse has only four fingers?
Additional information
Weight | 8 oz |
Dimensions | 1 × 5 × 8 in |


text:
New talks to avert train strike
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail are due to walk out for 24 hours from next Thursday evening and 48 hours the following week, threatening travel chaos after a new pay offer was rejected.
A Network Rail spokesman said the company and the RMT have agreed to meet at the conciliation service Acas later today to try to resolve the dispute and avert strike action.
The RMT is planning the 48-hour strike from 5pm on June 9.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe workers, including signallers and maintenance staff, will also ban overtime from June 6-12.
A planned strike over the bank holiday was suspended after Network Rail (NR) tabled a fresh pay offer.
NR originally offered a four-year deal - £500 this year, followed by three years of increases in line with RPI inflation.
The new offer was for two years - a 1% rise this year and around 1.4% next year, with no compulsory redundancies for the duration of the agreement.


text:
Several years ago, Artistic Director Richard Cook saw a production of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in Spain. It gave him new insight into Lennie, the big man-child whom migrant worker George takes under his wings, and ultimately led to the recasting of Michael Paul Levin as George in Park Square Theatre's version of Of Mice and Men that has been performed intermittently since 1998.
According to Richard, "Lennie in the Spanish production was clearly high on the autism spectrum. The actor portrayed the character as always in motion, swaying and shifting back and forth. He physicalized the role in such a big way as to make it obvious to us watching the show why George needed to protect Lennie.
When I returned from Spain, I wanted to revisit the show and do a fresh production. I reopened casting and re-auditioned all the roles. Michael had landed on my short list from the audition process. When I spent time reading with and talking to him, I knew he had the capacity to do great dramatic work. He was also raising a child with autism so living with a loved one who needs special attention–just like George with Lennie. I wondered if Michael would be interested in mining that territory and willing to invest in that point of view as a great way to explore why that relationship exists. Michael was brave and generous to say yes,"
What we witness on stage with each performance, as a result, is a deeply personal and honest portrayal of George that makes the poignant dynamic between George and Lennie that much more potent.
Michael reflected, "Richard wasn't a director trying to shoehorn his own impressions into the play. It made a lot of sense going back to read the source and seeing how close it hit home. How Steinbeck describes Lennie and how he behaves suggests Steinbeck's trying to describe autism without having the words for it."
In the play, George refers to Lennie as "a crazy bastard" or "you crazy son-of-a-bitch." We also learn about Lennie's preoccupation with soft things and compulsion to repeatedly stroke them, such as his incessant petting of mice and puppies or a woman's satiny skirt or hair.
Lennie isn't retarded or stupid," Michael continued. "Steinbeck uses words like 'crazy' to mean that Lennie has idiosyncratic behaviors."
However, before the 1940s, the concept of autism was indeed associated with mental retardation and, in 1910, with schizophrenia by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who coined the word "autismus." In 1943, Leo Kanner of the John Hopkins Hospital first used "autism" in its modern sense when he introduced the term "early infantile autism"; in 1944, Hans Asperger of the Vienna University Hospital introduced the term "Asperger's syndrome." In 1949, the term "refrigerator mothers" was derived from a false theory that autism was caused by a cold mothering style that resulted in psychological harm to their children. In 1964, Bernard Rimland, the father of an autistic son, provided the first solid arguments of autism as a biological condition and founded the Autism Society of America to counter the Refrigerator Mother Theory.
It wasn't until 1980 when autism was officially differentiated from childhood schizophrenia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Third Edition (DSM-III); 1987 when "autistic disorder" replaced "infantile autism" in the DSM-III-R, which finally provided a checklist for diagnosing autism; 1991 when schools began to identify and serve autistic children in special education; and 1994 when Asperger's syndrome was added to the DSM-IV. In 2013, the DSM-V replaced all the prior jargon with the more general term of "Autism Spectrum Disorders" (ASD).
"Autism awareness has come so far," said Michael Paul Levin. In fact, he and his wife, Stacey Dinner-Levin, also had a hand in raising autism awareness in 2007 when Autistic License, Stacey's autobiographical play about bringing up an autistic child, was produced by Illusion Theater. It starred Michael as their son Geordy. Autistic License was named one of the best plays of 2007 by the Pioneer Press.
"As a parent raising a child with autism, you're often silenced, overlooked or misrepresented. Stacey's play was an honest portrayal of what it's like," Michael said. "She suggested that I play our son. I did it because I couldn't think of any other actor who could do it. It was very healing for my family to see what we went through and for friends and relatives to see what our lives were like."
Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men will certainly tug at your heartstrings, but even more so from knowing how much of himself Michael has personally put into each performance.
Sources: projectautism.org/history-of-autism and en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism
Tickets and more information at HERE


text:
BPM 37093 - the "diamond" star
What's in a Name: | The 37093rd star in the Bruce Proper Motion catalog. Also known as V*886 Cen, the 886th variable star in the constellation Centaurus. |
Claim to Fame: | The most massive pulsating white dwarf currently known, with a crystal core of carbon and oxygen. A white dwarf is the final state of stars like the Sun, an exposed core that just slowly cools down over time. These stars begin to pulsate when the surface temperature reaches about 12,000 degrees. |
Type of Star: | Hydrogen-atmosphere variable white dwarf (Spectral Class DAV4.3). |
How Far Away: | 50 light years. |
How Big: | About 1/200 the Sun's radius (0.6 times the Earth's radius), but nearly the same mass as the Sun! |
How Bright: | 1/2000 times the Sun's absolute visual brightness. |
Where to View: | In the constellation Centaurus. Not visible to the unaided eye. |
When to View: | Best viewed from the Southern hemisphere during March-June. |
Last modified October 26, 2004 by Travis Metcalfe.


text:
The Minor Marvel Movie Characters Who Deserve More Screen Time
10 Little Marvel Characters Who Deserve More Screen Time
Ant-Man is the smallest big star of a Marvel movie yet. He may take up a miniscule percentage of the physical screen but, in his hero mode, he is the biggest name in the film. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, you don't need to be on screen for long to make an impression. These characters only appear for a few minutes but they're the ones you want to see more of after the credits roll.
Sif – Thor
All of Thor's pals were entertaining and you could very well include The Warriors Three here, particularly Fandral, who strode around like Robin Hood crossed with the dimmest of Shakespearean fools. Yet it's Sif who is the stand-out of the group, not only because she's a female warrior, a rare thing in the cinematic universe, but because she's the one with the most character potential. She has a complex relationship with Thor and seems to be the smartest and bravest of her group, being the first to twig that Loki might be a bit of a bad'un.
The Collector – Guardians of the Galaxy
He'd be the dream subject for an episode of Hoarders. Played right up to the edge of over-acting by Benicio Del Toro, The Collector is the greatest of eccentrics in a film in which absolutely nobody is remotely close to normal. He gathers together ridiculous doodads from all over the galaxy, just to have them. There are surely endless great stories about how he came by his marvelous tchotchkes.
Ellen Brandt – Iron Man 3
A short-lived henchwoman of Aldrich Killian, Brandt at least went out memorably. A former soldier who was given the Extremis serum after losing an arm in battle, Brandt tracked down Tony Stark to the small town where he was hiding and unleashed burning fury on whomever stood in her path. She came very close to killing Stark, until he MacGyver-ed her with a microwave booby trap, giving her one of those great 'villain notices they're about to be blown up a second before it happens' deaths.
The Howling Commandos – Captain America
There wasn't any logical way to carry on the story of Captain America's WW2 band of badasses once Cap moved to the modern era – not that logic has always stood in the way of Marvel's plans, cf. Agent Coulson's resurrection – but we had precious little time watching these liberated prisoners fight Hydra with big guns instead of superpowers. Even their mere names were a pleasure – Dum Dum Dugan, Montgomery Falsworth, Jacques Dernier. Agent Carter got a spin-off TV show; couldn't they have the same?
Heimdall – Thor 2
The doorman of Asgard. Kind of terrifying, kind of a grump, kind of a badass. He got a bit of a moment in Thor 2, leaving the confines of his little room to single-handedly bring down a Dark Elf ship, but the Thor movies could use a whole lot more Heimdall. Nobody ever complained about a movie featuring too much of Idris Elba.
Justin Hammer – Iron Man 2
There could have been a lot more made of Hammer, played by the louchely charismatic Sam Rockwell. He is in effect the evil Tony Stark, a rival weapons genius who gives his creations to the bad guys instead of using them for good. He's a lot of fun when we see him but that's not nearly enough. He's not dead, though, so we could feasibly get more Hammer time.
Yondu – Guardians of the Galaxy
When you cast Michael Rooker in any role, that character is going to stand out. Of course, if you make that character blue and give him psychic power over darts then Rooker has a head start. Yondu is neither hero nor villain; he's just a man who acts in the moment. He kidnapped Peter Quill at the start of Guardians, so is responsible for all the bad things that happened to him, but also saved him when he needed it. Yondu is complicated and had better show up in the next film.
The Other – Guardians of the Galaxy
Thanos's personal aid, The Other is a patronising arse who delights in telling everyone that if they don't do exactly what his master wants then they will be destroyed in innovative and unimaginable ways. His overly confrontational style is perhaps to distract from his revolting appearance, which he tries to disguise with an uncomfortable-looking facial apparatus and a big hood. He may just be in need of a long hug, but it's too late now because Ronan killed him. Hard to mourn. Trivia: He's played by Alexis Denisof, aka Wesley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Senator Stern – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Stern, played by the wonderful Gary Shandling, first appeared in Iron Man 2 as the self-regarding senator who brings Tony Stark to court to insist that he hand his weapons technology over to the US government. It's only in the second Captain America movie that it's revealed Stern is a part of HYDRA, and a total letch who is sleeping with a 23-year-old. It was rather comforting to be given a proper reason to hate a character who always had a festering air of douchiness.
The Guy Playing Galaga – The Avengers
The world is on the brink of destruction and one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. technicians is playing video games instead of focusing on the job in hand. Even after he's ratted out by Tony Stark – way to be a dick, Iron Man – he goes back to pootling about on his game. What is this guy's story? If he's cocky enough to defy one of the leaders of The Avengers then he's a man worth exploring further.


text:
Organisms in nature can assemble themselves into highly functioning structures. Understanding the unique architectural principles that prompt this self-organization offers important clues into economical ways of solving complex material and design challenges.
The polymer nanobristles in this image were covered in liquid. As the liquid evaporated, the process was controlled so that polymer bristles formed highly ordered helical clusters in which the bristle hairs wound around each other like embracing arms or gently entwined fingers.
This image was taken with a scanning electron microscope and colored to enhance detail.
Image credit: Joanna Aizenberg.
"Scientists Explore Nature's Designs," Harvard Gazette
Images from Aizenberg Biomineralization and Biomimetics Lab


text:
Long term car rental Seattle Airport (Washington State) [SEA], USA
Why use RentalCars24H.com?
- No Hidden Charges
- Lowest price guarantee
- You are guaranteed a car from a leading supplier
- Amend or cancel your booking online quickly and easily
- Break Down Assist
- Orlando - Airport (Florida) [MCO]
- Los Angeles - Airport (California) [LAX]
- Honolulu - Airport [HNL]
- Kahului - Airport Int [OGG]
- Miami - Airport (Florida) [MIA]
- Las Vegas - Airport [LAS]
- San Francisco - Airport (California) [SFO]
- Lihue - Airport [LIH]
- Kona Airport [KOA]
- Fort Lauderdale - Airport (Florida) [FLL]
- Hilo - Airport [ITO]
- Tampa - Airport [TPA]
- Phoenix - Airport [PHX]
- San Diego - Airport [SAN]
- New York: Jfk International Airport [JFK]
- Boston - Airport (Massachusetts) [BOS]
- Denver - Airport [DEN]
- SeaTac, Washington (WA) 0.56 mi / 0.9 km
- Burien, Washington (WA) 2.69 mi / 4.34 km
- Renton, Washington (WA) 4.79 mi / 7.71 km
- Kent, Washington (WA) 5.46 mi / 8.78 km
- White Center, Washington (WA) 5.55 mi / 8.94 km
- Muscle Car Rental at Los Angeles Airport LAX
- 24 Hour Rent A Car at Los Angeles LAX Airport
- AVR Car Rental at Los Angeles LAX Airport
- Car Rental Los Angeles Downtown
- Wedding car rental Los Angeles
- Exotic car rental Los Angeles - LAX Airport
- Advantage Car Rental Los Angeles LAX Airport
- Car rental Los Angeles to San Francisco
- Car rental Los Angeles to New York
- Car rental Los Angeles to Las Vegas
Book in advance to save up to 40% on Long term car rental Seattle Airport (Washington State)
Car rental in Seattle Airport (Washington State) [SEA]
Car rental near Seattle Airport (Washington State) [SEA]
Car rental in downtown around Seattle Airport (Washington State) [SEA]
Seattle - International Blvd
0.48 mi / 0.77 km -
Seatac (Wa)
0.73 mi / 1.17 km -
2.67 mi / 4.3 km -
3.73 mi / 6.01 km -
Kent - Downtown
4.47 mi / 7.2 km -
5.02 mi / 8.08 km -
Renton - 353 Sunset Blvd N
5.86 mi / 9.44 km -
Seattle - 6313 35th Ave Sw
7.77 mi / 12.5 km -
Seattle - 3711 Rainier Avenue South
8.71 mi / 14.01 km -
Auburn (Wa)
8.95 mi / 14.4 km -
Federal Way (Washington)
9.83 mi / 15.81 km -
Seattle - Downtown
11.72 mi / 18.87 km -
Seattle - 1605 Boylston Ave
11.81 mi / 19.01 km -
Seattle - North
11.9 mi / 19.15 km -
Seattle - 2116 Westlake Avenue
11.99 mi / 19.3 km
If you are looking for a monthly car rental or a rental car for 12 month or other period - you've just found what you need! Car rental long term Seattle Airport (Washington State) offers the cheapest car rental vehicles, and in a longer period it means much bigger savings! After we compare car rental companies in amount more than 800, we'll provide you with entire information about cheap car rental long term opportunities in your location and in 30,000 more car rental locations all over the world. We are always near - wherever you will travel you'll have instant access to our high-quality car rental services. Click our form and see how much you can save on long term car rental Seattle Airport (Washington State) with RentalCars24h.com!
We have cheap car rental vehicles for any occasion: low cost car rental vehicles, SUVs , compact ones, standard and 4x4 sport vehicles, luxury cars and even super cars everyone dream of! You'll be excited of how much you can save booking with us! With a wide selection of long term car rental vehicles on RentalCars24h.com you can select a car similar to yours or try a car model you have always dreamt of. Our car rental discounts are so pleasant to your budget that you'll forget about any other kinds of transport. Using our promo car rental coupons, car rental specials and last minute car rental opportunities you'll see how beneficial car rental deals can be!
Seattle Airport (Washington State) long term car rental makes sense in such situations as family vacations, internships, business occasions, moving to another place, relocating to another city/country for work or study. Our vehicles are available for car rental under 25 (in some American states you can rent even in 18 years old but not younger) and have no other age limits.


text:
How to enter:
Share the lookbook photos and link back to our lookbook on your blog, Twitter, or other social networking page. You must give us the link to your post in your comment below.
- You may grab images from our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150201930481309.316162.46213181308
- Here is the lookbook link: http://www.shopruche.com/lookbook_sunlit_serenity.html
Embed the lookbook into your blog, Twitter, or other social networking page. You must give us the link to the post in your comment below.
- For the embedding code, go to http://issuu.com/shopruche/docs/sunlitserenity and click on "< > get embed code"
CONGRATULATIONS, KATHLEEN FRANK! Thank you so much for tweeting the lookbook!
Contest Disclaimer:
We will use randomizer.org to find the winner. No purchase necessary. We reserve the right to close the contests early or late without warning. We will post the name of the winner June 17, 2011. Upon winning, you agree that your name can be published on this blog at the close of the contest. You must contact us within 7 days after the winner has been announced to claim your prize.


text:
10334 Marigold Pearl
by JRENEE
Be chic with ease, in this beautiful pearlized patented pu convertible clutch. Wear as a simple clutch or utilize the shoulder strap for a hands free event. Perfect compliment to your wardrobe for day to night, denim casual to more dressed up. Make a style statement, for any occasion, with J. Renee'.


text:
After spending decades searching for alien planets capable of harboring life, astronomers may have found one. So how can they check to see if life actually exists on this alien world?
Yesterday (Sept. 29), a team of researchers announced the discovery of Gliese 581g, a rocky, roughly Earth-size planet in its parent star's so-called "habitable zone" a just-right range that can allow liquid water to exist.
One of the planet's discoverers said in a briefing yesterday that "the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent." To determine if this is true, researchers will have to scrutinize Gliese 581g from afar, searching its atmosphere for certain telltale molecules.
But it might be a while before they have the tools to do this properly.
Listening for signals
Gliese 581g isn't far from Earth in the great scheme of things only 20.5 light-years or so. But that translates to about 120 trillion miles (194 trillion kilometers) 500 million times farther away from us than the moon. [ Tour the six Gliese 581 planets.]
So human-built probes won't be getting out there anytime soon. But one way to look for life on Gliese 581g is to turn our radio telescopes toward the planet, searching for patterns in emissions of electromagnetic radiation.
Such patterns could indicate the presence of intelligent life, according to Seth Shostak of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, Calif.
The Gliese 581 star system has intrigued researchers for a while, so they've already taken a few looks. During SETI's Project Phoenix, which surveyed almost 1,000 star systems from 1995 to 2005, astronomers looked at Gliese 581 twice, Shostak said.
"No signal was found during these observations," he told SPACE.com.
What's in your air?
Life doesn't have to be intelligent and advanced for astronomers to pick it up. Studying Gliese 581g's atmosphere, for example, could theoretically reveal the presence of organisms as simple as microbes.
This method assumes the alien planet has an atmosphere, likely a necessity for life to take hold. Gliese 581g's discoverers reported that the planet's gravity is probably strong enough to hold onto an atmosphere, but they didn't definitively detect one.
"The first thing is, you've got to have an atmosphere," said Bill Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center, the science principal investigator for NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission. "If there is one, then what's the composition of that atmosphere?"
If astronomers detect the signatures of large, complicated compounds like chlorofluorocarbons, which people have manufactured to use as refrigerants and propellants life is likely, according to Borucki.
"You're looking for chemicals like that," he told SPACE.com. "If they're there, somebody's making them."
But other, simpler chemicals could also be strong evidence for life, as long as their ratios are right.
"Ideally, you'd be looking for a complement of compounds that normally don't exist in chemical equilibrium," said Jon Jenkins of the SETI Institute, the analysis lead for the Kepler mission.
As an example, both Jenkins and Borucki pointed to methane and oxygen.
"You typically don't have both gases present in significant quantities unless life is present," Jenkins told SPACE.com. But scientists would have to be careful how they interpreted such information, he added, because we don't know much about how other planetary systems tick.
"Though scientists get excited about these discoveries just like the public does, we also tend to be pretty cautious," Jenkins said.
Tough job for today's tech
So scanning Gliese 581g's atmosphere, if it has one, would give us a good idea if the planet harbors life or not. But it'll probably be a few decades before we can do this properly.
Astronomers have characterized the atmospheres of alien planets before. But those other worlds are bigger and much hotter, meaning they throw off lots of radiation for our instruments to pick up. Gliese 581g is relatively close to Earth, but its other traits make it a tough read.
It's only about three to four times as massive as Earth, for example, with an average surface temperature between minus 24 and minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 to minus 12 degrees Celsius).
"Because they are cool and small, planets like this are very difficult to study," Jenkins said. "It's easier to detect something than to characterize it in detail."
Jenkins said that Gliese 581g also apparently doesn't transit its parent star, meaning it doesn't cross in front of it from our perspective on Earth. Astronomers can learn a lot about a planet's atmosphere by studying starlight that passes through it but this technique is likely not an option with Gliese 581g.
As a result, the tools astronomers currently have at their disposal likely can't determine what's in Gliese 581g's air, according to Borucki and Jenkins. So researchers will have to wait for new instruments to come into play.
A few decades away
One promising tool mentioned by Borucki, Jenkins and Shostak is NASA's proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission, which would use an array of telescopes orbiting Earth to generate detailed images of alien planets.
TPF would employ advanced techniques to reduce the glare of the exoplanets' parent stars, allowing the mission to pick up faint radiation coming from planets. The mission could theoretically detect chemicals like methane and oxygen in the atmospheres of alien worlds such as Gliese 581g.
The TPF mission, however, is in limbo. It is currently unfunded, with no launch date set. So researchers will probably have to wait a while before they can see what Gliese 581g's atmosphere is made of.
Whenever TPF, or something like it, comes along, it may have a long list of planets to check out, Jenkins said.
"I would predict that [Gliese 581g] is just the tip of the iceberg," he said. "Fifteen or 20 years ago, very few people thought we'd be discovering such extrasolar planets anytime soon. This find just shows how far we've come."


text:
FONA International (Geneva, IL) has hired Melissa Battles as senior applications technologist, grain business unit. In her new role Battles, who has more than six years of experience in the baking arena, will assist the research and development team by developing flavors and products for customers.
William Churchwell has joined FONA's Operations Department as environmental, health and safety compliance officer. With more than 15 years experience, Churchwell will ensure that FONA programs, policies and practices continue to surpass industry standards.
FONA has hired Theresa Guess as quality assurance supervisor. Guess has 15 years of experience in quality assurance in the flavor arena.
Angel Ray has joined the company as plant manager. In his new role, Ray will lead the customer service, purchasing, material control, warehousing, shipping and receiving, production and sample service departments. Ray has eight years of experience as plant director in food manufacturing and seven years as operations director in electronics manufacturing.
FONA has promoted James Evanoff to chief financial officer. Evanoff has more than 14 years of experience in accounting and finance and has held titles such as financial controller, customer finance director and manager of financial planning and analysis.
Andrea Weinecke has been promoted to analytical supervisor. In her new role Weinecke will manage and operate FONA's analytical services laboratory, supporting the analytical needs of all business units, the technology and innovation group and quality control.


text:
It's been almost 10 years since Gwyneth Paltrow married Chris Martin. And in that time, especially after they became parents, they've been photographed together side by side maybe half a dozen times, maybe? And never, ever on a carpet. They are so vigilant about being photographed together side by side that Chris will often book it down the sidewalk, leaving his wife to walk on her own, rather than give up the shot.
Here are Gwyneth and Chris with their kids in Santa Monica yesterday, the second time they've been pictured together this week. I don't actually think that's ever happened before. The paps are easier to avoid in London than they are in LA, sure. But not that easy. And Chris doesn't even seem that pissed. In fact, he's not only not taking off on the mother of his children, in one of these photos, amazingly enough, I think he might be touching her on the arm.
Remember when he kissed her this summer in a stadium full of fans?
The Paltrow-Martins are unclenching...?
Is California loosening them up?
And, um, forgive the cynicism...but why?
PS. New GOOP collaboration this week -- a jumpsuit by L'Agence. She is hooking up with some serious brands, non? I love this look. And if you take care of it, you can wear it for years. I've decided I officially like these Stella McCartney heels more than similar the Versace ones.


text:
KGB (color scheme)
KGB was the color model imposed by the government of the Soviet Union on early Russian computer programmers because the western system of RGB was considered decadent by Communist Party officials and an example of US imperialism. Please lay down on the floor and perform apparently forlorn turkey calls if you mistake this for the misunderstood color, Kay Gee Bee.
The three primary colours:
Communists believed that this system works a lot better than RGB. This is for many reasons, none of which have yet been explained. It is rumoured that this system serves a higher function that has not yet been discovered. Some people believe that because of the KGB system, people have lost lives due to the confusion of the implication of this system or ended up in gulags in Siberia due to their refusal to use it. However, it must also be noted that many in the former Soviet Union as well as communists today embraced this color model as The Democratic People's Color Model of the People (Marxist-Leninist). Today the color model is still used in North Korea whereas other communist countries such as China and Cuba have sold out and adopted the western/capitalist/decadent/imperialist/anti-proletariat RGB model.
Our lord and saviour.
This article needs a paint job . |


text:
The Consolation Prize
Whenever Jews are faced with troubles it is important to remember the lesson of the "consolation prize" which is often awarded to those who suffer.
One outstanding example is found in the census of our ancestors in the wilderness that is recorded in this week's Torah portion.
In his commentary, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (RaMbaN) takes note of the fact that the Tribe of Levi was far less in number than all of the other tribes. This seems strange in light of the special status that this tribe had as servants of Heaven.
One suggestion he makes is that all the other tribes were subject to oppressive bondage in Egypt that was calculated to reduce the Jewish birth rate. It was then that a voice from Heaven declared "You are trying to prevent them from having children and I say they will have children." The result was a miraculous birth explosion with Jewish mothers giving birth to sextuplets. Since the Tribe of Levi was not subject to Egyptian bondage their birth rate remained normal and therefore had a smaller population than those blessed with miraculous reproduction.
Just as there was a "consolation prize" for the suffering in Egyptian bondage, we can look forward to something similar that will increase the numbers and security of Israel forever.


text:
This week I'm talking to small house dwellers for an upcoming article in Mother Earth News. I'm inspired by their commitment to minimalist living, and I'm learning a lot of tips and tricks for making the most of tiny spaces. Most of all, though, I'm inspired by the obvious joy and satisfaction that living in a smaller home brings to these folks. Living in a tiny home is a choice that no one regrets. (If you'd like to tell Mother readers your story, send an email to email@example.com.)
This morning, coincidentally, I received an email from Hunter Douglas with five good tips for "living larger with less." They're worth sharing.
The Container Store's Water Hyacinth Bins offer an attractive option for storage in three sizes.
1. Contain It: More items in view means the room appears more crowded and compact. Contain as much as you can in stylish storage. First, designate a spot for every belonging so that there are a few items on tables and desks. Putting small items in neutral-colored boxes or decorative bins. Line up the storage pieces side-by-side and organize books or other items by color for an orderly look that, along with uncluttered surfaces, makes the room feel more spacious.
Viva Terra 's wool ottoman supports weary feet while storing magazines and media remotes in its secret drawer.
2. Furniture that Fits: Replace large, overstuffed furniture with trim, tailored pieces more in scale with the space. Place the heaviest piece in the room, whether a couch or a chest, along a wall to save space. To create balance, position another weighty item across from it. Place smaller furniture pieces such as chairs diagonally in corners to not only look inviting, but to open up the room. Find something the eye can focus on when entering: a beautifully dressed window or unobstructed view, piece of art, decorative mirror or well-kept fireplace. Lastly, invest in as many multi-tasking pieces as possible, like a coffee table that doubles as seating and also has built-in storage or a compact drop-leaf table that opens up to a desk or dining table.
Interior designer Shelly Handman uses translucent glass and mirrors to create the illusion of more light.
3. Lighten Up: Mirrors can act as virtual windows to enhance the light a room receives. Hang them so they can reflect something you want to see (artwork or the outdoors). Brighten the room with window coverings that make the most of mood-boosting natural light.
Pale yellow walls give this Chicago bungalow a sense of cohesion and space. Photo by Michael Shopenn/Natural Home & Garden
4. Color that Creates Space: Bold and warm hues make a room feel cozy, while light and cool tones instantly expand the space. Try light yellow, soothing soft blue or always-complimentary ivory on walls. Continue with a neutral palette for the overall design to further optimize the space. adding only a few "pop" colors and patterns on pillows, art or tabletop accessories. Keep these cooler hues harmonious throughout the home to break down walls and create a flow.
Hunter Douglas 's Skyline Gliding Window Panels feature a track system that allows them to be used as room dividers.
5. Divide and Conquer: Create a breakfast nook, home office or even separate bedroom with a decorative divider.


text:
Vice President
First Lady
Mrs. Cheney
News & Policies
History & Tours
Your Government
Graphic version
Email Updates | Español | Accessibility | Search | Privacy Policy | Help
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 2, 2004
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, 2004
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we raise awareness of this deadly disease, encourage early detection, and support research to find a cure.
Prevention and early detection are key to winning the fight against breast cancer. Although the exact cause of the disease is unknown, factors that can affect the risk of developing cancer include age, general health, and family history. This year, estimates are that over 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Regular screening for breast cancer continues to be the most effective way to detect this disease early and to save lives, and mammograms are the best screening tool we currently have. Women should talk to their health care providers about their breast cancer risk.
To improve the quality of life and find a cure for those affected by breast cancer, we are learning more about its causes. The National Institutes of Health has invested an estimated $700 million this year alone on breast cancer research and will spend more next year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has devoted over $200 million this year and more next year for an early detection program that promotes mammograms and helps low-income women afford screenings for breast and cervical cancer. The Department of Defense also invested approximately $150 million for its Breast Cancer Research program in 2004. This funding will help lead to better treatments for cancer patients and new hope for countless Americans and their families.
We salute breast cancer survivors for their courage and perseverance. Their courageous battle against cancer is an inspiration to countless Americans, and their willingness to share their stories and experiences helps spread awareness and offers hope and comfort to cancer patients across the country. Together with health care professionals, researchers, and family members, we can improve the lives of those suffering from this disease and win the fight against breast cancer.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2004 as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I call upon Government officials, businesses, communities, health care professionals, educators, volunteers, and all the people of the United States to continue our Nation's strong commitment to controlling and curing breast cancer.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-ninth.
# # #
Printer-Friendly Version |
Email this page to a friend |


text:
It's summer in Germany, and [Valentin's] room was getting hotter than he could handle. Tired of suffering through the heat, and with his always-on PC not helping matters any, he decided that he must do something to supplement his home's air conditioner. The result of his labor is the single room poor man's A/C unit you see above.
He had a spare Peltier cooler sitting around, so he put it to good use as the basis for his air conditioning unit. He sandwiched it between a pair of CPU heatsinks before cramming his makeshift heat pump into a shoe box. Warm air is drawn into the box and across the cold side of the Peltier before being blown back into the room. On the hot side of the box air is also pulled in by a fan, drawing heat away from the unit before being exhausted outdoors through his window.
While he hasn't quantified the machine's cooling power, he seems quite happy with the results. We have a spare Peltier kicking around here somewhere, perhaps we should try building one just for grins.


text:
BMW burlesque photos & Andy Warhol BMW M1 Art Car at Paris Photo LA
Paris Photo is a photographic exhibition held at Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles. Having been associated with the event in Paris, BMW is also supporting the LA event with the display of its BMW Art Car by Andy Warhol. The unique BMW M1 sports car was created by the pop artist in 1979, and visitors will also be able to see rare footage of the making of this work.
In addition to the car, BMW will also present a series of burlesque-style photos taken by renowned German photographer Uwe Düttmann. He used the 6 Series Gran Coupe as his subject, taking it to a Hollywood studio and private movie set outside of Los Angeles for the shoot. The 15 photographs present two models adopting signature burlesque poses, and will be seen back home in LA for the very first time.
BMW and Paris Photo celebrate the tenth anniversary of their partnership, with BMW providing a VIP shuttle service during Paris Photo Los Angeles.
For many years, the BMW Group has worked together with noted photographers from Bettina Rheims and Bryan Adams to Karl Lagerfeld. The company has been involved in the arts for more than 40 years. In 2005, at the opening of Zaha Hadid's BMW Leipzig plant, BMW donated its unique collection of commissioned photographs by Thomas Demand, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rineke Dijkstra, Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth, among others, to the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts. When promoting outstanding young photographers, BMW has been active in providing scholarships for international artists in Germany as well as France, where residences have been set up at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce. In addition, BMW has been engaged with Les Recontres Arles, the acclaimed summer photography festival. As a long-term partner of Art Basel, Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Basel Miami Beach, Frieze London and New York as well as Tefaf Maastricht and many other fairs worldwide, BMW has taken in active part of furthering the visibility and innovative spirit of photography as an established form of artistic expression.
For more information about BMW's cultural initiative, visit


text:
Well in advance of your live event, our technicians meet with your staff to review all of the issues related to site planning. Lighting, power, numbers of cameras, camera positions, audio sources and a host of other items are reviewed with you. Please click THIS LINK for a copy of our extensive pre-production planning checklist.
On the day of your event or the evening before, we arrive at your event venue and review with you the pre-prodution plan. Then we set up for the shoot and test everything from end to end. From the time that we start recording and streaming our focus is entirely on video and audio quality. We only get one shot at a live event and it is our job to make the most of it.
Now that your event is over it is time to consider your archiving and on-demand hosting and distribution options. We can produce very high quality DVD's with titles or we can index, chapter and transcribe the event or put a chaptered set of links up that allow viewers to quickly skip to sections of the video that interest them.


text:
Hope you all are out and about this week enjoying some quality summertime activities. If you live in San Francisco, get up to the Russian River. Burkes Canoe Trips is a great option. 10 miles down river and they have a bus waiting to drive you back at the end. An hour from the city and the $60 for the canoe is well worth it. Warm water good times.
A ten mile self-guided canoe trip through the Redwoods with return shuttle included. Picnic, swim, sunbathe at beaches along this magnificent stretch of the river.
Summer in them mountains floating down the Russian River
Being dumb on the Russian River
< Prev | Next > |


text:
Law and Society in Byzantium, Ninth–Twelfth Centuries
Edited by Angeliki E. Laiou and Dieter Simon
Harvard University Press books are not shipped directly to India due to regional distribution arrangements. Buy from your local bookstore, Amazon.co.in, or Flipkart.com.
This book is not shipped directly to country due to regional distribution arrangements.
Pre-order for this book isn't available yet on our website.
This book is currently unavailable
Dropdown items
Publication date: 12/17/1994
The essays in this volume investigate themes related to the place of law in Byzantine ideology and society. Although the Byzantines had a formal legal system, deriving from Justinian's codification, this does not solve the problem but rather poses important questions. Was this a society which was meant to be governed by law? For answers, one must look at the intent of the legislators (to address specific problems, or to order society according to an ideal pattern?); the attitudes toward the law; the relationship between law, religion, literature, and art. What were the spheres—political, economic, private—that the laws and the lawgivers sought to regulate? The concepts of law and justice are quite different from each other, and the relationship between them is investigated here.
Of importance also, in this medieval society, are the connections between law and religion. There is the problem of the provenance of the law—whether the Emperor or God himself is the source of law—and the broad implications of the answer. At another level, ecclesiastical law was very important for everyday life, and the question arises of how much knowledge people had of it and how profound was their knowledge. Both people's perceptions and their practices were shaped by their views of human justice and divine justice: whether these coincided, and whether they were administered through the same means, for the intervention of saints or icons might be seen as an alternative to human justice. As for human justice, there are questions that involve both society's view of it and the education, knowledge, and interests of those who administered it.
Such issues are present in all medieval societies; the case of Byzantium is of particular interest because of the interplay between formal law and the conceptualizations and practices—some quite divergent from the ostensible purpose of legislation—which affected the legislators, the practitioners, and all of society.
- Angeliki E. Laiou was Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History at Harvard University.
- Dieter Simon is Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt.
Book Details
- 280 pages
- 6 x 9 inches
- Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection


text:
Egyptian design duo siblings Aya and Mounaz Abdelraouf launched their brand Okhtein – meaning, appropriately, "sisters" in Arabic – because of their vision to bring true luxury back to their home country as well as drawing international attention to the inherent refinement of Egyptian artisanship,sensing a gap in the market for true luxury accessories produced in Egypt. Launched in 2013, Okhtein seeks to set new trends, promoting Egyptian artistry as well as presenting new designs to the world. As a brand, Okhtein is remarkable due to its hyperlocal manufacturing process. Each Okhtein product has a unique provenance with deep cultural associations. To manufacture their products, Aya and Mounaz felt compelled to take a philanthropic approach to their work, this led to a highly mutually rewarding collaboration with several local NGOs that work to provide assistance to skilled female workers who have faced considerable financial hardship.
Independent Brand
Unfortunately we do not currently stock the Okhtein collection at Wolf & Badger.


text:
Hurricane Sandy puts renewed pressure on food supply in Haiti
| Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Before turning its sights on the United States, Hurricane Sandy left a fresh disaster in Haiti, killing dozens and flooding cities and farmland. The storm set off fears of renewed challenges, including spiking food prices and a new cholera outbreak.
Sandy lingered over Haiti for three days, dumping sheets of rain on a flood-prone country where some 370,000 survivors of the January 2010 earthquake still live in makeshift homes and tents.
Government officials said at least 52 people died and 15 were still missing after the rains swamped wide swaths of land, particularly in the south, an important crop-growing region. News agencies reported that at least 18,000 people were in temporary shelters.
"In and around the [southern] city of Les Cayes, there is flooding everywhere," says Pélèg Charles, a spokesman for the charity Oxfam UK, from his office in the capital Port-au-Prince. "It's disastrous.… But we won't know how bad it really is for several days."
Contaminated water and devastated crops
Mr. Charles says that Oxfam has already received reports of some 150 new cases of cholera since the storm pulled out of the Caribbean this weekend. "We will not know for five to seven days if there is a new outbreak," he says, "but we're very worried about the spread."
Cholera can spread quickly in contaminated water, and has killed more than 7,000 Haitians and sickened hundreds of thousands others since an outbreak began in October 2010.
Sandy was the second deadly storm to hit the country since late August, when Hurricane Isaac killed at least two dozen.
"Most of the agricultural crops that were left from Hurricane Isaac were destroyed during Sandy," Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told Reuters. At least a dozen bridges were destroyed and a key route that connects Haiti and the Dominican Republic was severely damaged, according to the government.
The impact on food security is a top concern for government officials. Recent spikes in food costs have contributed to social unrest in recent months, marked by nationwide demonstrations to protest double-digit rises in the costs of staples like rice and cooking oil.
'No roof to protect you'
Officials have yet to estimate the financial damage Sandy caused, but, Lamothe said, "The economy took a huge hit … even by international standards." He told the news agency that the government was planning to appeal for international funds.
Kysseline Cherestal, a senior policy analyst for the charity ActionAid USA, which works in Haiti, says many of those whose homes were damaged by Sandy have also been without work for days."Not only have they lost their tents or had their homes damaged, but they were not able to work so they lack the means to buy necessities," Ms. Cherestal says. The charity is responding with emergency food rations and sanitation kits.
Cherestal, who spoke from rain-soaked Washington, D.C., says "things are very dire in Haiti right now.
"Imagine living through this storm with no roof to protect you from the rain and mud. That's what people in Haiti are suffering through."


text:
Longer, lower, wider, faster, more fuel efficient, and—amazingly—slightly lighter, according to the company, the new Porsche 911 Carrera is a better car in every way. Which means it's less like a Porsche 911 than ever, because let's face it, much of what made the model an icon have been its eccentricities.
Up until the late 1990s, mastering a 911 was lion tamer's work. The 996 and 997 generations greatly improved drivability, and the lion has been thoroughly tamed with the 2012 redesign. Anybody who draws breath and has the dough (China is rapidly filling up with candidates) can safely cuddle up with this cushy kitty. The wheelbase is stretched, the front track is wider, and the rear-biased weight split is claimed to be closer to equalization—all of which promotes on-road stability and reduces the midcorner bounding and corner-exit steering washout that make older 911s so, er, thrilling. The electronic suspension devices and the traction-control systems are more capable, making the steering response even snappier and the car more eager to go where you point it.
Granted, the only version provided for our drive was a 3.8-liter Carrera S with the optional Sport Chrono package. So equipped, it includes Porsche's dynamic engine mounts, which we've often praised for helping settle the car down over pitching pavement. All comments should thus be so flagged. But whatever version you drive, the car feels big. When did the 911 get to be the same length as an Audi A6? It's not actually that large, but it seems it. Dare we call it the Carrer-amera?
Yes, we dare. The influence of the Panamera is obvious once you crack open the doors and see that long ski slope of a center console studded with buttons. Porsches used to have nothing but a shifter and air between the seats, which emphasized the fact that the oily bits were out back. Porsche design director Michael Mauer says the 911 is the source for all Porsche brand styling, but in this case, it looks as though the company's big, front-engined limo—and strategic cost-saving component sharing—had a say.
By the way, for decades Porsche has given all its projects an internal number starting with "9," and it's now running out of numbers. We were told at the lavish international launch in Santa Barbara, California—where a blue-sky budget included grinding and resurfacing an old weather-beaten airport apron to serve as an autocross course—that the new 911's 991 project code was selected simply because it was still available. In the future, Porsche plans to start mixing in letters to get codes like 9A1, the designation for the new family of direct-injection boxer engines.
Haven't We Seen You Before? Of Course We Have
Meanwhile, the rest of the new Carrera looks every inch a 911, if for no other reason than customers expect it to be so. The differences live in the details: the roof and the front fender humps—the latter capped by domed headlamps—are lower and give the car a wider, more-limpet-like road stance. The red-dagger taillamps live under a furrowed brow running around the back; Mauer says this look eventually will migrate to all Porsches.
Using the driver's hip point as a reference for the change in wheelbase, the front axle moves forward by 1.2 inches, and the rear moves aft by just under three. The overhangs have been reduced, so the body is 2.2 inches longer overall. The windshield center point moves about three inches forward, but the glass has more curve to it and wraps around to A-pillars that have moved hardly at all.
Nothing carries over from the 997's body shell, which employed far less aluminum in its construction. In contrast, the lighter material comprises about 45 percent of the new car's shell, including the floor, roof, doors, and all structural and exterior sheetmetal forward of the windshield. Steel is limited mainly to the piece that forms the rear quarter-panels and door frames. It is a complex single part that requires seven separate stampings and that Porsche's stamping supplier said was too deeply curved to form from aluminum. We're estimating curb weights will be about 3250 pounds for the Carrera and 3350 for Carrera S, or basically the same as before. (For its part, Porsche says the S weighs about 10 fewer pounds.)
This is the enviro 911, the press kit for which touts not the new power figures (350 hp for the Carrera and 400 hp for the S, increases of 5 and 15) but the potential fuel saving from each engine technology. An idle stop/start system that buyers can disable if they want saves up to 1.5 mpg, for example. An alternator that charges at a higher rate on deceleration: 0.4 mpg. A coast-down function that, in cars equipped with the PDK twin-clutch gearbox, automatically decouples the engine in some deceleration scenarios and lets it drop to idle could save a maximum of 2.5 mpg. The final EPA window-sticker numbers won't be released until early December, but city and highway mileage will probably rise 1 to 2 mpg for the Carrera and Carrera S depending on the transmission.


text:
On the afternoon of November 15 1994, Adrian Doorbal, a weightlifter with a penchant for extreme violence and a steroid habit that was playing havoc with his sex life, sat in the front seat of a rented van, waiting to abduct the millionaire owner of a Miami deli.
On paper it wasn't a difficult job. Not only did Doorbal and his two accomplices outnumber their target – Marc Schiller – three-to-one; they were also armed with a gun and a shock-inducing Taser, which was capable of paralysing a person from a distance of 21ft. Despite these advantages, Doorbal was worried. This was, after all, the gang's eighth attempt, the seventh having taken place just the day before, and one could be forgiven for wondering whether something was going seriously wrong in the planning stages of the operation. Two weeks previously, for example, their plan had been to dress up as ninjas on Hallowe'en and grab Schiller when he opened his door to what appeared to be a group of trick-or-treaters. Somehow this idea fell by the wayside and they ended up going to a strip club instead.
Then, a few days later, before dawn, they had donned camouflage paint and hidden in Schiller's yard under some tarpaulin, ready to pounce when he came out to get his newspaper. But, again, the mission had to be cancelled when it suddenly dawned on them they would be exposed by the headlights of oncoming cars. So, today there could be no mistakes.
At first, everything seemed to go well. Just after 4pm, Schiller emerged from his deli and started walking towards his car. As he inserted his key in the lock, the gang grabbed him from behind and started bundling him towards the van.
"If you want my car, just take it," Schiller grunted. But that wasn't what they were after. "Tell me what you want and maybe I can give it to you," he said. When there was no response to this, Schiller began fighting and yelling for assistance. The guy was surprisingly strong for someone who didn't work out and the struggle lasted a while. Frustrated, the gang stunned him with their Taser. This weakened him but to their astonishment he carried on resisting. They stunned him again. Finally, after a few more Tasers, they got him to the van, managed to slide open the door and threw him inside. Out came two pairs of handcuffs – one for his hands another for his feet. Duct tape was wrapped around his eyes and a moving blanket thrown over his body.
At last they had their man. But if they thought this breakthrough proved they were suddenly criminal masterminds, they were very much mistaken.
Today, Marc Schiller lives in a small one-bedroom apartment in Boca Raton, Florida. In contrast to 1994, when he had a house with a pool, his own accountancy firm, a deli and $1.26 million in the bank, he is now an employee of a modest-sized company which pays him $20 an hour. He rarely socialises outside of work, is divorced from his wife, sees his children only occasionally and has, by his own admission, "zero" interest in making friends.
He's not a man given to self-pity, but anyone who hears what happened to him after he was kidnapped by Doorbal and his accomplices can't fail to feel sorry for him. And now, to compound his problems, a film has been made that depicts him in a far from favourable light.
Pain & Gain, which stars Mark Wahlberg and is directed by Michael Bay, the man behind the Transformers blockbusters, is a high-tempo black comedy that pokes fun at the bodybuilder gang, but goes out of its way to stigmatise Schiller as well in order, one assumes, to generate some sympathy for its leading man. Schiller's name has been changed, but it would take about two minutes on Google to identify him, since the case was well covered by Miami newspapers at the time and in a three-part serial by the journalist Pete Collins in 1999.
"No one [involved with the film] ever talked to me," he says now. "It wasn't me they put in the movie. When I saw it I thought, 'Who is this person?'" On screen, Victor Kershaw (aka Schiller) brags about his money, treats his employees with contempt and drives around with the words "Miami B----" emblazoned on his number plate. In reality, says Alex Ferrer, the judge who presided over the case, Schiller wasn't like that at all.
"In the movie they made him out to look slimier than he was," says Ferrer. "He really wasn't a slimy guy." And besides, he adds, "nobody deserves what he got. Nobody." The man ultimately responsible for what happened to Schiller was a former car salesman called Jorge Delgado. In 1991 he had come to work for Schiller as a sales representative at his accountancy firm, and, over the next 18 months, the quietly spoken Cuban had become a trusted friend, looking after Schiller's house when he and his family went on holiday and working with him on other ventures.
Tony Shalhoub, who plays Victor Kershaw, a character based on Marc Schiller
But things started to sour in late 1992 when Delgado joined a bodybuilder's hang-out called Sun Gym. There he met Daniel Lugo (played by Wahlberg in the film), a 6ft 2in muscle-bound personal trainer and the gym's manager. Lugo was a man whose ambitions far outstretched his abilities. Obsessed with money, women and fast cars, he had just competed a 15-month prison sentence for fraud and was currently involved in another scam to swindle the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars via ten fake medical companies.
When Lugo heard about Delgado's work with Schiller, he initially wanted to go into business with them both, but Schiller was not interested.
"The first time I met him, I could tell there was something," says Schiller. "He was unsavoury. He couldn't look you in the eye. You could tell he was hiding something." Unfortunately for Schiller, Lugo had become something of a big brother figure to Delgado. They were spending an increasing amount of time together and, in February 1994, convinced Delgado was working with Lugo on some sort of fraud, Schiller ended their business relationship.
After settling their affairs, he didn't expect to see either Delgado or Lugo again, but Lugo had other plans. In mid-October the 30-year-old arranged a meeting with Adrian Doorbal, his workout partner, Stevenson Pierre, Sun Gym's back-office manager, and a friend of Pierre's called Carl Weekes.
"Are you," he asked Pierre and Weekes, "interested in making $100,000 for two days' work?" He'd recently discovered that "a scumbag" named Marc Schiller had stolen money from a gym member called Jorge Delgado. He wanted to kidnap Schiller, force him to return the money and, while they were at it, take his house, his cars, his savings and anything else they could get their hands on.
Pierre agreed, Weekes put up some resistance. A petty criminal who was battling an addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine, the 31-year-old had recently embraced Christianity and was meant to be getting his life in order. But Weekes was very much a work in progress, and a few reassuring words from Lugo were enough to persuade him to agree to the venture. One month later he was in the back of a Ford Astrovan racing towards a warehouse in North Miami with a bruised and bewildered Marc Schiller at his feet.
Marc Schiller, as he looks today
As soon as they arrived, the door was opened and the victim was thrown face down on top of a cardboard box. He was still blindfolded and sweating profusely, partly from the temperature inside the van, partly from fear. Then someone pressed an object that felt like an aluminum bat against his face.
"Feel this, asshole? You know what it is?"
"You make one wrong move, and I'll break your head."
Schiller had just got his first taste of the customer service in what he calls "Hotel Hell". Over the next few hours he was punched, pistol whipped and Tasered again. They played Russian roulette against his temple. One of them, Schiller believes it was Doorbal, took a lighter to his arm and burnt his flesh until it sizzled.
After that he was forced to phone his wife and tell her he had gone on a last-minute business trip. She should fly to Colombia with their children for a family event and he would follow in a couple of days. To Schiller's relief, she agreed — at least his family was now out of harm's way – but it now meant his captors had access to his empty house. They started quizzing him about his assets.
"OK," said one of them. "You have a house that's paid for, your wife's family money that you invest, your wife's jewellery, an apartment in Miami Beach, jet skis..." It was obvious immediately that his former friend Delgado was behind the operation; nobody else knew all these details. Schiller also clocked who he was talking to. "This is the Daniel Lugo Show," he thought.
Over the next few days Schiller – still blindfolded – took a series of calls patched through to the warehouse from his home phone. Each time, a gun was placed against his head and he pretended nothing was amiss. He was also called upon to sign dozens of documents. He couldn't see them, but it was obvious what was happening: the gang were transferring everything he had into their name. After a month in captivity – which Schiller spent chained up and blindfolded without a change of clothes and only intermittent food – the gang were satisfied that they'd got as much as they could and revealed the end game. First, Schiller had to phone his lawyer with an outlandish story: he'd been having an affair with a Cuban beauty, his wife had found out and now he was depressed and suicidal.
Then he was told to get drunk. At gunpoint, he downed vodka, tequila and chocolate liqueur, some of it mixed with sleeping pills. At 2.30am on December 15, they put him in his car and drove him to an industrial park. Lugo placed a comatose Schiller in the driver's seat, stepped on the accelerator and steered the vehicle towards a concrete pole. Just before the crash, Lugo jumped out, but when the men ran up to inspect the wreckage, they found to their chagrin Schiller was still alive.
So they moved on to Plan B: Lugo sprayed the car with petrol and set it alight. Unfortunately for the gang, Lugo had forgotten to strap Schiller in. As they pulled away in their car, they saw their man – revived by the heat – stumble out and weave his way towards the road. Weekes, behind the wheel, hit him and then, for good measure, turned the car around and ran him over.
Marc Schiller's car, after the Sun Gym gang had tried to kill him
Schiller remembers none of this. The next thing he knew he was in hospital, the searing pain in his body proving he was still alive. In a book he has written about his ordeal, he lists his injuries: a twisted spine, a shattered pelvis, a ruptured bladder and a damaged spleen. But Schiller's first concern was for his immediate survival: a hospital was a public building and, once the gang found out he wasn't dead, they could come and finish him off, so he organised for an air ambulance to take him to a hospital in Staten Island. And it was lucky he did, because that very morning the Sun Gym gang, dressed in hospital uniforms, were on their way to kill him.
Over the next four months, Schiller recuperated and tried to put his finances back in order. His house now belonged to a corporation in the Bahamas, his deli franchise had been dissolved, his offshore accounts were empty and $160,000 had been spent on his credit cards to buy, among other things, thousands of condoms and adult films. He learnt later that Lugo had been living in his house, calling himself "Tom" and telling neighbours he was a member of the US security forces and the house had been confiscated by the government. The neighbours liked him. He changed light bulbs for them and helped with odd jobs.
Why didn't Schiller go to the police all this time? Schiller was subsequently jailed for Medicare fraud and many people believed that explained his reluctance, but he maintains he was innocent and the reason he didn't approach the police at first was because he thought they wouldn't believe him and, he says, he wanted to gather his own evidence.
He hired a private investigator named Ed Du Bois, who went to meet Lugo and came across all the evidence he needed. "They put me and Ed Seibert [a former homicide detective] in a small office," remembers Du Bois, now 70. "And after a while we noticed the trash can underneath the desk was overflowing with paper. We started looking through it and almost everything pertained to Schiller's kidnapping."
The gang had obviously been cleaning up their files, but instead of shredding their papers, had put them in the bin. "There were copies of cheques written to all the bad guys for their part in the crime," says Du Bois. "So we had more than Lugo and Delgado – we had the whole gang." With this haul and Lugo showing no signs of handing back any money, Schiller and Du Bois finally went to the police in April 1995. Unsurprisingly, they wondered why Schiller had waited so long to contact them. And while they stalled, the gang moved on to their next victims – a millionaire called Frank Griga and his girlfriend, Krisztina Furton.
This would-be kidnapping was a far more brutal and brief affair, although no less farcical. Instead of tying Griga up and forcing him to sign over his assets, Doorbal got into a fight with the Hungarian and ended up killing him. When Furton started screaming, she was sedated with Rompun – a horse tranquilliser – but the dose was far too high and she died as well. The hapless weightlifters then cut up the bodies with a chainsaw. As soon as the couple were reported missing, Lugo and his accomplices fell under suspicion and, when one of the detectives who had worked on the Schiller case heard a gang of weightlifters were in the frame he immediately phoned Du Bois. Within a matter of hours, all but Lugo had been arrested. The ringleader, who had fled to the Bahamas, was picked up five days later.
Krisztina Furton and Frank Griga, who were murdered by the Sun Gym gang
Today, Lugo and Doorbal are both on death row. Delgado served seven years. And Schiller is working 11 hours a day for less money than he earned in his first job out of college and doing what he can to forget his ordeal. When the case came to trial, in 1998, the prosecution was able to present the jury with 10,000 pieces of evidence concerning both the murders and Schiller's kidnapping, and testimony from more than 100 witnesses, including one statement that revealed Lugo went back to the DIY store, Home Depot, to return the chainsaw he had bought to dismember Griga and Furton because it was suffering from a burnt-out engine.
"There were literally times during the case when the lawyers would [approach the bench] to talk about an issue and we would just shake our heads and laugh because of the stupidity," says Ferrer, the judge. "The case was incredibly tragic, but it had a lot of dark humour in it."
The new season of Judge Alex, featuring Alex Ferrer, begins on September 2
To buy Marc Schiller's book, 'Pain And Gain: The Untold True Story', click here


text:
Alluring Tales 2: Hot Holiday Nights
Order Ebook: Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Apple Books | Google Play
Order Print: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound | The Book Depository
From the authors of the bestselling ALLURING TALES: AWAKEN THE FANTASY comes a new erotic romance anthology featuring seven super-sexy holiday-themed short stories. Together, the Allure Authors offer more than just steamy romances—they introduce readers to an erotic world full of limitless possibilities.
The holidays are heating up — with seven wickedly sensual stories guaranteed to spice up those chilly winter nights!
A psychology student goes online hoping to live out her steamiest fantasy — and ends up on a hot mystery date with a wickedly imaginative stud who brings out her inner pole-dancer…
A determined lady comes home, burning for her girlhood crush — a sexy lawman who totes a big gun…
A creative ad man's passion is aroused when he sees his buttoned-up coworker in a revealing new light — dressed in sizzling red satin on a giant billboard…
A professional dominatrix wishes upon a star, and her fantasy appears — an insatiable alpha male in biker boots who's literally out of this world…
A tall, dark, handsome warlock finds himself obsessed with his "familiar" — a sleek and sexy cat-woman who turns out to be the purr-fect lover…
She was always hot for big brother's best friend — and now her erotic dream is here in the taut and tempting flesh…
A pair of fugitive lovers finds themselves warm and toasty in a sultry Caribbean paradise — and ready for some red-hot fun in the sun…
Read an Excerpt
Dalton cut his cruiser's lights as soon as he saw the little red Miata parked in the judge's driveway. He recognized it as the same sassy little car parked outside the courthouse that morning.
After radioing to the dispatcher, he grabbed his flashlight and headed to the backyard. He had a good idea where their "burglar" would be. Sure enough, as soon as he rounded the corner of the house he found her, arms stretched in a lazy back stroke, her body nicely outlined by the recessed lighting rimming the bottom of the pool.
Flicking off the flashlight, he knelt beside the water and waited patiently for Harmony to finish her lap, enjoying the sight of her sleek, toned frame as she glided to the edge of the pool. Her body hadn't filled out all that much since high school, but her slender curves were still all woman. Dusky nipples drawn into tight little buds rode the crests of shapely little breasts. He forced his gaze away from the thatch of dark hair between her legs. However much he enjoyed the sight, he had a job to do. Tonight was just one of the perks.
As her hand grabbed the edge of the pavement to stop her momentum, she stared up at him from upside down, a slight defiant smile curving her full lips.
He pointed to the steps. "I'll wait 'til you're dressed."
Harmony kept floating and her lips pouted. "Sheriff, you sure know how to suck the fun out of a little civil disobedience."
Dalton felt his mouth stretch into a grin and shook his head. "Did you know the judge was out of town?"
One dark brow rose. "Why, of course. He mentioned it just as he was rendering his judgment against me. Said something like, 'Gotta fishing trip to make. Thanks for givin' me something to talk about, little girl.'" Her nose wrinkled. "I hate it when he calls me that."
"So, this was just for you? A little revenge?"
"No, Sheriff. It was for you," she said, and turned, giving him a flash of her pale bottom before pushing off the side of the pool for another lap.
Dalton grew still, his eyes narrowing on Harmony Wilkins. The last time he'd seen her naked and wet, his dad was wrapping a towel around her shivering body and leading her back to her home, all the while reading her the riot act. Dalton had been grateful for the few minutes of reprieve to hustle Cindy Niedermeyer into her clothes and out the back door, but he'd never forgotten the stubborn set of Harmony's shoulders or the pink blush that stained her cheeks and the tops of her tiny breasts as she'd been led away.
He'd have thought the humiliation of that first charge of indecent exposure would have been enough to teach her a lesson.
Apparently not. Nor the second or third.
Dalton lifted his cowboy hat and raked his fingers through his hair. Harmony had caused quite a stir in their high school all those years ago. Her arrest had only been the beginning of her hijinks. It seemed every time he turned around she was sitting outside the principal's office, her chin high, a smile pasted on her lips.
It had taken finding her stark-ass naked in his pool for him to finally remember her name, but she'd earned a new one that followed her into the pages of yearbook immortality—Trouble.
After graduation, she'd disappeared. Left for college, some said. Met a bad end, his father believed. Dalton had never forgotten her. Every time he looked at his dad's pool, he remembered that even after getting his satisfaction with Cindy, he'd wanted to slide right into Harmony's wet, sleek body.
Still did, if the tightening in his balls was any indication.
She had to be yanking his chain about being here for him. Testing him, maybe. Or just trying to get out of another arrest. He wondered how far she was willing to go.
Dalton didn't move from his spot beside the pool, deciding to wait until she turned into a prune. If she didn't mind him looking, he wouldn't pretend to be a gentleman and find somewhere else to pin his gaze.
The sight of Harmony's firm little ass drew him—all the way up the pool. He prepared for disappointment when she made the return trip, but she flipped over, letting him watch her breasts ride above the surface of the water, her nipples tight and dimpled. The sight of the dark hair between her legs had him gnashing his teeth by the time she stopped again, just below him.
Dalton tried to keep his gaze locked with hers, but her lips parted, her breaths panted slightly, which lifted her chest and drew his gaze down her length again. He cleared his throat. "I'm still waiting."
A dimple deepened in one cheek. "Why don't you come and get me?"
"You want me to haul you out of the water?"
"Ooh!" she said, shivering. "Then you'd have to touch me, but I'm all wet and wiggly. What do you think you'll grab first?"
Dalton stared and felt heat rising to stain his cheeks. No woman he barely knew ever talked to him like that. Most were a bit intimidated by the uniform. "I'm still gonna arrest you."
"Did I offend anyone? Did I damage anything?"
"You trespassed."
"You always follow the rules?"
"It's my job."
Her dark lashes swept down, and then she gave him another flirty glance. "Ever do anything naughty, just 'cause you couldn't resist the urge?"
"Of course."
"Then be naughty with me. Here."
Drawing a deep breath, he ground his teeth. "The judge has motion detectors set around the house.
You set off a silent alarm. You must have been trying to get inside the house."
"I saw the Brinks sign and rattled a window. I knew you'd come."
"Now, I know you're playing me. I'm not the only officer on call."
"But I knew you'd make it your business to check out the judge's house. Personally."
"What if I hadn't been alone?"
A wicked smile stretched her lush lips. "Then this would be twice as interestin', don't you think?"


text:
Who is to Blame for Islam's Relentless Encroachment?
WE'VE MENTIONED a page of comments about sociopaths (see article here). In the comments, several sociopaths have posted something. But mostly the posts are from victims of sociopaths — ex-lovers, parents, children, siblings of sociopaths. They tell their story of woe, how they were abused, taken for all their money, toyed with in a cruel way, heartlessly hurt, etc. The point of view of the victims is almost always the same: How can anyone do this to another human being? The point of view of the sociopaths is also consistent: How can anyone be naive, trusting, and foolish enough to let someone do this to them? The same question could be asked of modern Western society. If we didn't have so many people who believed that everyone is good, that every culture is equally deserving of respect, and that every religion is at its core the same as every other religion, we wouldn't be in this mess, regardless of what orthodox Muslims were doing. The reason sociopaths are able to take advantage of their victims is because the victims do not believe someone can be so cold and unfeeling. They don't know anything about sociopathy. They don't know it is possible. And they assume everyone else is like them: Good at heart. A decent, law-abiding citizen who tries to be fair with everyone and who feels empathy for others. The assumption is their undoing. Sociopaths exploit that assumption for all its worth, and leave a trail of broken lives in their wake. Same with the West. The assumptions many of us are making has allowed Islamic supremacism to get as far as it has gotten.